Femi,
Fine, but why are you still making patronizing statements to me ("an experienced and knowledgeable somebody like you.."), as if I need your validation to know that I am knowledgeable and experienced, and insulting me by saying that I am "go[ing] low and pedestrian"? Seriously, you want to judge my analytical depth? There are things I could say about your own analytical capabilities, but I will not go there as that is unimportant to the discussion at hand. To boot, you lectured me on the perils of accidental generalization. Wow! Since you barged into this discussion, you've contributed nothing of substance--only invectives and patronizing asides that you've not earned the right to throw at me or Ikhide. And all of this from someone quoting the Bible and deploying pentecostal Christianese (destiny helper)!
I could lecture you on the value of strategic generalization, strategic essentialism, poetic license, and other subtleties of the discursive enterprise, but why bother? I could also lecture you on the dangers of crude empiricism (the discursively tyrannical and unrewarding notion that every claim must be statistically or empirically substantiated to be valid), but you'd not appreciate it.
The most egregious part of your diatribe is that, in getting so worked up defending ASUU and its shenanigans, you did not even bother to notice that it was Feyi Fawehinmi, the blogger, whose write-up I posted, who said he would set exams for lecturers in Nigerian universities, and not Moses Ochonu. My crime, I guess, was that I posted the offending blogpost--I was the messenger.
Put a sock in it; I don't need patronizing niceties from you. And I'm still struggling to understand why you want to dictate to full-grown men who are arguably your intellectual equals the way to express themselves in a public forum. What arrogance! Who appointed you to the role of discourse police. Who doesn't know that Ikhide generalizes for effect? I mean, the man has even declared multiple times that readers concerned about his generalization can help themselves by erecting the appropriate caveats and qualifiers if that floats their boats. If you cannot navigate different discursive styles to extract their essential insights, that's a testament to your own prejudices and incuriosity. If you think anyone will change their style for you, you got another think coming buddy. Is this forum an academic journal? My broda, quit obsessing over someone else's style of expression and develop your own unique style. At least Ikhide has a signature style--what is your own stye?
And on a lighter note, if you cut Tolu Ogunlesi some slack on account of youthful exuberance, why won't you do the same for me? Am I not a youth myself and am I not entitled to some youthful exuberance, especially on a matter that I am passionate about, a matter in which I am deeply involved?
On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 1:13 AM, Femi Segun <soloruntoba@gmail.com> wrote:
Moses:I have nothing against you or Elder Ikhide! I think you need to do more research on what goes for constructive criticism or what you previously justified as a ' poetic license'. I have shown in my previous interventions on this debate that ASUU cannot be absolved of the blame as far as the problems in the university system in Nigeria are concerned. Just like Professor Afolayan said in a previous post, I had issues with the ASUU chairman of my university before I left the country. He thinks I'm too critical of his administration for advising him to ensure some sanity in the system. However, it is your tendency to commit what is call the error of accidental generalisation in Sociology 101 that I object to-in very strong terms. While one can pardon Tolu Ogunlesi for his youthful exuberance in classifying all Nigerian universities 'as citadel of nothing,' an experienced and knowledgeable somebody like you should not go so low and pedestrian as to be saying you wanted to set exams for Lecturers in Nigerian Universities -with a certain air of unfounded certainty that no one can pass such exams. Is that part of constructive criticism? What happens if they all passed your exams? Context matters.Nothing personal please.--On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 2:25 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <tvadepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
Moses,I wont address the nuanced validity of Femi's response, which is not equivalent to an escapist mentality.I see you, on the other hand, as an extremist on this subject, most of whose information is fictitious and analyses most problematic, to put it kindly.I have a problem with some of the claims you make that suggest a sweeping knowledge of the Nigerian university system.Please help me explain this-how do you know this for a fact-'But I'll tell you that for every one lecturer who taught me well, for every lecturer who takes his/her pedagogy seriously, there were/are two who were/are terrible teachers. I mean, some lecturers were scatter brain jokers who themselves should be in the classes they claim to be teaching! Many saw the rudimentary elements and obligations of the teaching craft as distractions and nuisances. And that is the problem.'
Is this your personal experience?If it is your personal experience, how representative is it of Nigerian university education?If you consider it representative, how did you come to that conclusion?Thanks
toyin--On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 5:01 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
Femi,Your response is emblematic of the ASUU activist mentality. They're insulated in their own bubble and as a result see ill intentions behind every critique. To them critics must be bullied with insults and innuendoes. It will not work.I have narrated my personal experience with Nigeria's culture of poor instruction, which ASUU is doing nothing about and is in fact standing in the way of doing something about. This does not mean that every lecturer I encountered in the university was terrible. This is not the only forum I write on, and I have praised some of my former teachers in other forums, including in my publications. Their instruction was integral to my formative intellectual processes and I'm indebted to them. Since you're quoting the bible (while insulting Ikhide and myself by the way), let me also quote you a scripture that says there is a place and time for everything...My main concern in this discussion are not the teachers who take their craft seriously--God bless them. I sat under the instructions of several. I currently know a few and I'm good friends with them. They're not only great teachers but they're fantastic scholars. But I'll tell you that for every one lecturer who taught me well, for every lecturer who takes his/her pedagoy seriously, there were/are two who were/are terrible teachers. I mean, some lecturers were scatter brain jokers who themselves should be in the classes they claim to be teaching! Many saw the rudimentary elements and obligations of the teaching craft as distractions and nuisances. And that is the problem.Our task here is not to praise individual members of ASUU who are not making excuses and are being productive in pedagody and research. Our task here is critique, constructive critique. If you and you fellow ASUU bullies and activists can't take it, tough luck. You're not going to use emotional blackmail to shut down this discussion, no matter how uncomfortable the critique makes you feel. So, buckle up, the ride is going to get bumpier.--On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 10:36 AM, Femi Segun <soloruntoba@gmail.com> wrote:
Well said my brother. Such condescending attitudes are nothing more than what I said before on this issue-'coloniality constrained mentality'. I think it is also a function of blind imitation of some warped orientations that breed devalorising one's helpers of destiny. Didn't the bible say, 'if the foundation is destroyed what can the righteous do'? When you so despise your foundation as the likes of Ikhide and Moses with their air of petulant arrogance have been doing on this issue, you inadvertently dig a deep pit for yourself-the inevitable implication-being the people you are labouring over may never get to appreciate you. No one in his right senses can say what is going in the Nigerian University System is okay. No doubt ASUU is also part of the problem as people like Prof. Okey Iheduru pointed out this morning. But it assaults decent sensibility to dismiss your foundation. I wonder what people like Moses and Ikhide could have made of their lives if they had no one to teach them in the universities after finishing their secondary school educations.Femi--On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 7:35 AM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <tovadepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
Fine writing by Tolu Ogunlesi.My problem with some of this criticism is its absolutist character, its sound bite strategy.Why describe Nigerian universities this way- ' our hundred-plus Citadels of Nothing.'I dont get it.So, all your years at the famous University of Ibadan amount to nothing?Nigerian universities are nothing?I also did a BA, an MA and part of a PhD in a Nigerian university.The experience, particularly the BA, is foundational for me and continues to grow within me.The rigour and scope the structure of the MA and the part PhD represented left their mark, even though they did not demonstrate the near flawlessness of the BA.My teachers and my memories of them from that BA are forever embedded in my psyche, a unity of experience and memory that grows more powerful the more I develop, because I am growing on the foundations they were central to building.Romanus Egudu, Ogo Ofuani, Rasheed Yesufu, Chinyere Okafor, Virginia Ola, Opene, Victor Longe,Odun Balogun, Steve Ogude, Nwuemene, Titi Ufomata, Okpure Obuke, all these people were heroic in the way they did their jobs in that foundational BA, even though at that moment people had begun to look down on lecturing as a job for poor people, for those 'economically unambitious'.We were fortunate that the unforgettable Dan Izevbaye from the University of Ibadan did his sabbatical at my university rather than go abroad. A wonderful experience.I have to mention my friends, my senior colleagues Nkeonye Otakpor in philosophy and Leo Otoide in history. People of vision whose publications are easily accessible and the quality of which is glaring.These foundations are the bedrock of my efforts in the three universities I have attended in England, all superb experiences I have accessed with ease on account of the depth, rigour and scope of the foundations I came with.These foundations are central to all I will ever be as a scholar and writer.My formal training is in literature, but the depth, rigour and scope of that training established in my University of Benin BA, and complemented by my further grooming there, allied to my self development, enables me to expand myself into art criticism, history and theory, along with other fields.Literature was taught as a sea into which all rivers of knowledge flow, while I took electives in history and religion, along with the further exposure provided by the university library and the university bookshop, so little is new anywhere.The years I spent teaching at the university, even though I later became embittered at the constraints on creative freedom imposed by senior colleagues, motivating my leaving the system, further cooked me, as it were, opening my eyes to possibilities in educational management and giving me the economic strength to develop my own independent initiatives along such lines.The cosmopolitan culture of Benin-City, perfectly balanced between the newer forms of knowledge and the ancient cognitive systems, rounded the learning experience off in providing an awesome matrix, the implications of which I am still working out with great benefit all the way in England, the creative possibilities of that cultural convergence in Benin being practically infinite.I did not attend the University of Benin in what is known as the glory days of Nigeria, but my teachers in my BA remain my heroes for their absolute dedication and sheer knowledge.I also read their publications in leading journals in the field.Some of them were pioneers in their disciplines at a global level.I see my own former students from that university in action in different parts of the world-one completed a PhD in law at Oxford, another is likely to have rounded off his at another English university, another, after a stellar career in the corporate world, is at a prestigious leadership program at MIT, of which Koffi Annan is a graduate, others are working in various capacities.I see the impressive work of my former colleagues in various academic departments.Graduates of Nigerian art schools, from the very beginnings of the study of modern African art to the present, are at the forefront globally of modern African art, from the early example of the Zaria art school to the more recent phenomena represented by Victor Ekpuk, and Joseph Eze, who, in my view, are among the world's great artists.On account of my own experience, and my knowledge of the history and achievements of Nigerian university education at a global level, from the 50s to the present, this system having been central to shaping across various humanities disciplines what is now known as African studies and modern African culture, I have difficulty understanding where dismissive attitudes to Nigerian university education are coming from.thanksToyin--On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 1:46 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
ASUU's strategy and the Nigerian university
--On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 7:06 AM, Gbolahan Gbadamosi <gbola.gbadamosi@gmail.com> wrote:
Chidi,
This is exactly the attitude that has brought ASUU and the issues at hand to the present level. Any dissenting voice must be squashed; they must have an ulterior motive … Yeah, let us stick together, let us think one way…
I'm shell-shocked – the only point you have been able to pick from ALL the arguments and suggestions on the best way forward that have been advanced on this forum is that some people in the Diaspora want to come and take ASUU's job. Really? Are you for real?
Glad at least you admitted that ASUU has not been able to respond as you put it "propaganda for propaganda" – but did you stop to ask why that is?
With an ASUU friend like you why should they look for an enemy anywhere?
You remind me of the 1 million man-march for Abacha – that was also in Nigeria wasn't it?
Gbolahan Gbadamosi
Bournemouth, UK
On 7 October 2013 10:38, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:One of the problems ASUU has at the moment is the ambition of some persons in the diaspora to take over the administration of education in Nigeria. They armed their attack dogs with one sided facts and unleashed them on the Internet, ASUU must be made to look bad so that they would be invited to come and "help". Unfortunately, ASUU, presently, is too weak to match them propaganda for propaganda. Nigerian literature suffered the same fate not quite long ago.CAO.
On Sunday, 6 October 2013 19:54:04 UTC+1, tovadepoju wrote:On the National Unity of ASUUTo the best of my understanding, the idea of dismantling ASUU is ultimately inimical to the Nigerian university system.In a system like Nigeria's political context, you need a national ASUU to address the issues of academics and universities.ASUU can be improved, but to dismantle the union in the name of having only local branches, looks to me like a journey to hell.Operating from local unions alone is a recipe for powerlessness, and therefore ineffectual relationship with the federal government, the employer of the universities.Feyi Fawehinmi describes Nigerian academics as among the better paid in the world.
His claims are contested by respondents on his blog who state his figures are not consistent with their own experience as Nigerian academics.These respondents also place his general criticism of ASUU in what looks to me like a more balanced context.Whatever the reality might be, however, any gains academics have have made is because of the strength of a national ASUU.Remove that national strength, and you have no power.In five to ten years time, that salary being described as so big could shrink to your pre-1990 position as the Nigerian economy fluctuates.Then university decay would begin in earnest.We need a discussion about and action on how to make sure ASUU and the govt are always on the same page or on a page close to each other, on how to improve academic development, on how to make sure academics are more conscientious, on how to make sure those monies made available to universities are maximised, on how to improve student well being as much as possible -eg. any university in the world that does not have 24 hour Web access for students - at both individual use and dedicated computer rooms with a sufficient number of computers- and staff might never be part of the global knowledge stream in a significant manner, in my view, but removing a national ASUU from the equation might be to ensure these developments will never emerge.Ideas are being canvassed about the govt doing its duty more diligently with reference to universities, but who is to ensure that those duties are fulfilled?On Nigerian vs International Publication of Journal Articles and BooksFeyi Fawehinmi described Nigerian academics as being largely locally published alone.
He presents a beautiful description of the value of international publication.An academic responding on Fawehinmi's blog who disagrees with his comments on academic salaries agrees about the local publishing charge and gives reasons for that, indicating a very disturbing scenario for scholarship in Nigeria.While I acknowledge the value of publishing outside Nigeria, I think we might need to rethink the publishing paradigm implied by the concept of international publication.My ideas on this are still not definite but I would like to make some provocative statements followed by suggestions-The Current Situation : Difficulty of Access by Continental Africans to Western Published Books and JournalsYou might publish a book a year, as Biodun Jeyifo is described as doing did when he left Ife for Cornell, climaxing in his monumental last book on Soyinka, at which point he moved to a Harvard professorship; you might almost be a God of knowledge like Toyin Falola and Abdul Karim Bangura, whose range of subject matter and volume of publication make them institutions in themselves, most likely inexhaustible fields of study, but even though Falola's work is staunchly rooted in Africa and Bangura is a die hard Afrocentrist, if I am using the right terminology with reference to Bangura, one needs to ask- what communities of learning are being served by their universes of publications?To what degree are African scholars, students and universities able to buy their books?These books are academic publications, academic publications being consistently the best in non-fiction, in my experience, but, as published by Western publishers, which I expect they and other academics in the West are published by, they are consistently the most expensive.The high end of such expensiveness might be represented by some academic publishers like Cambridge University Press, who publish the cream de la creme of uncompromisingly academic work, often without any concessions to a non-academic audience, concessions the equally academically robust but perhaps more adventurous Oxford University Press achieves with its general range like the Very Short Introductions, a great idea, presenting the most up to date research on a subject in a succinct manner that still does not eschew disciplinary rigour.Cambridge UP, on the other hand, is characterised purely by high end works, to the best of my knowledge, encompassing the absolute academic rigour and specialist character of a good number of Oxford UP publications, but without Oxford UP's range of audience scope and pricing, Oxford UP interestingly, also publishing new children's fiction, suggesting their range, while Cambridge UP seems to me to represent absolute hard core academic work, and with prices to match, their only fiction seeming to be classics of Western literature.Their books, however, represent a concentration of some of the very best, the most ambitious, carefully conceived works, some rightly taking years to research and write.I will not bore you any further with reflections arising from my salivations in the Cambridge UP flagship bookshop on Trinity Street, Cambridge, but leave you with the observation of a bookseller that those books are not really meant for individuals but for institutions to buy.When you encounter their fantastic many volumed series on the history of science-they are very good at many volumed series- then you might be compelled to assess yourself and see the point of that bookseller.They sell to individuals, though, and give a 20% discount to students and staff of Cambridge university and neighbouring academic institutions, along with recurrent discount sales.I have also been able buy some books there, even without the discount, recognising the place as a necessary destination.Patronising them is a necessity in certain contexts.There is quality, and there IS quality.In a world in which the most globally representative books and journals are published outside Africa, what should Africans do?To what degree can their communities read even the works of continental Africans published in those journals, in a world in which even Harvard, possibly the world's richest university, once announced it can no longer afford its scope of journal subscription, a world in which Timothy Gowers, Fields medal winner (described as the highest honour in mathematics), and Cambridge university professor of mathematics, led a successful boycott on working with journals published by the prestigious academic publisher Elsevier, in protest at the publisher's pricing policies?Suggestions : Persisting In and Improving Nigerian Journal and Book Publication1. I suspect that those creating journals in Nigeria and publishing in them are doing the right thing in the long run for the interests of the cognitive ecosystem represented by the Nigerian educational system and its social context.I suspect the real challenge is how to do it as well as possible and keep doing it, expanding the global membership of the editorial board, the international demographic represented by those who write in the journal and the international range of its distribution.Web access would make a world of difference in all these cases.One could have Web only journals.One could use a blog as a journal template as is already being done.One could even use Facebook.Moyo Okediji is doing some wonderful work at the Facebook based University of African Art, particularly with his with every Monday free conferences on African art, enabling so many who had been shut out of the world of sophisticated art discourse to take part in the development of discourse in the field by scholars and artists.The possibilities that initiative opens up are so many.One could also use both Web and print options, as some journals do at present.2. I suspect that those writing and publishing books in Nigeria represent the foundations of an indigenous cognitive and educational ecosystem.I suspect the real challenge is how to do it as well as possible and keep doing it.
Are Nigerians able to readily import academic books?If not, nothing prevents one from writing a good book and making money from it.The entire country would be a wide open market, and, to a lesser degree, even other African countries.I am not aware of the current situation in Nigeria, but I doubt if lecturers need to compel students to but their books as some have done.Textbooks are for general student use, and summations of the field,while others are directed at advancing the field and are addressed to specialists and those prepared to read at that more advanced level.Web access could also make a world of difference here.One can publish online, to address both a global market and even a local market accessing your work on mobile platforms like phones and iPads, as well as publishing in print for the local market.thankstoyin
On Sun, Oct 6, 2013 at 1:42 AM, Ikhide <xok...@yahoo.com> wrote:Bolaji:Many thanks for taking the time off your busy schedule to provide us from your private treasure trove, rich data that informs the ASUU wahala, data that is now coming out in dribs and drabs thanks to the great efforts of in-your-face critics like Feyi Fawehinmi. I chuckled at the predictable response by Professor Akin Oyebode to Feyi's robust analysis. Feyi is what is known as a Twitter Overlord, @DoubleEph has 8,500 followers on twitter, the face of today's Nigerian youth, incredibly influential. ASUU should follow him and not heckle him. People like Feyi know mass communication and on social media (Twitter and Facebook) they are giving ASUU the royal finger - sweetly.Yup, ASUU and the government should listen to Feyi and the others. Put the student in your documents and in your plans. Emulate how these young folks break down data. And do the same. It is free. And you know what? All these young folks are not abroad like Ikhide throwing rocks from Babylon. They are in Nigeria. Again, social media is important. There are new leaders in that culture. Many young leaders have thousands of followers. A single tweet from them shared all over could make a difference. Someone like Tolu Ogunlesi has 44,000 followers. Follow @toluogunlesi. It is free ;-) This is the 21st century people, folks should unshackle themselves of ancient paradigms. And begin by partnering with the young - in a respectful manner. It is their life after all.
It is useful to restate your recommendations here:"There is enough blame and misunderstanding on all sides, but what we need right now is statesmanship on both sides to end this strike, after which our whole Nigerian University System should be re-evaluated to grant GREATER AUTONOMY to individual universities; have the federal government (and the NUC) play a less intrusive role in university governance; declare the education sector a national security matter; and have collective bargaining / strike action be more local rather than national. Towards that end:1. The Federal Government should truly commit to increasing funding to the education sector, starting with the 2014 Budget. It should include ALL monies going NOT only to the Federal Ministry of Education but to ETF, PTDF and any other MDAs that spend money on education in the calculations.
2. ASUU should accept the N30 billion earned allowance paid now as DOWN-PAYMENT, and when the Vice-Chancellors in consultation with the Governing Councils have disbursed same, should be able to return for more as found necessary. IN the time being, the Federal Government should budget N30 billion for it in the 2014 budget, to build trust.
3. ASUU should accept the N100 billion NEEDS assessment money given to all universities by the Federal Government, after being assured that this will not affect statutory TETFUND money. [By the way, all VCs and Pro-Chancellors are being invited to Abuja next on Tetfund affairs.] Again, the Federal Government should budget N100 billion in the 2014 budget for special ADDITIONAL intervention in the next year, and the following two years, and ensure that all trapped TetFUND monies are released promptly..
4. The Federal Government's No-Work No-Pay rule on this particular strike should be rescinded forthwith; It sours relations, in the opinion of Vice-Chancellors, because there are academic staff who may NOT be teaching, but are doing research and community service, and some are actually doing administrative work (Heads of Departments, Directors, etc.)."
Bolaji, mark my words, your recommendations will be ignored like the ones before them. We are only having this conversation because ASUU is feeling the heat from disgusted stakeholders and is beginning to sense what it feels like to COMPETE. More needs to be done to make ASUU and the government responsible and accountable to those who are unfortunate to be their customers. You have said it all in your opening context to your recommendations. It won't happen without a structural shift. ASUU at the national level must be disbanded. All employee unions should remain at the local level. It is a matter of national security concern that the country catches malaria each time ASUU sneezes. Nonsense.Bolaji, even you have struggled with the numbers. No one knows for sure what the numbers mean, where they came from. I can tell you the numbers are a careful product of SWAG - Serious Wild Ass Guessing. ASUU and the government are not serious. You need an assessment of EACH facility in EACH institution with discrete dollar figures for each institution. There should be a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) - preferably a multi-year CIP for each institution. Ideally many of those facilities in those horrid pictures should simply be torn down and modernized. That would require an annual layout of CIP and maintenance money in the budgetary base every year. It won't happen with the Soviet style unitary system we have in place today. There is no competition and no incentive for improvement because ASUU and our Government do not answer to anyone and do not care.The money ASUU is asking for is enough to institute a Marshall Plan to rescue our institutions. Again, this is where I say ASUU and the government are not serious. Where did those figures come from? Where are the details? Bolaji, you know that as an educational administrator, this is what I do for a living, it is logistically impossible to spend that kind of money annually - you do not have the infrastructure in place to do what needs to be done. I can bet you, the money will be released - and promptly looted. Has anyone ever asked what ever happened to the money that the institutions got in the past? Your guess is as good as mine.The government's best hope is to convert all those funds into grants, give them to the institutions, wash hands off them and assume an oversight role with a real NUC and with help from external evaluators in tertiary institutions. It can be done, but between ASUU and our worthless government the children of the poor are royally screwed. We are stuck, Bolaji.I cannot say this enough: ASUU is a victim of its own success, the perennial shutdowns have been so successful, not many seem to care anymore. ASUU has helped to devalue the worth of a real education. Bored, our kids now turn to other pleasures and vices to kill the time. Between ASUU and a criminal government the children of the poor are royally screwed. Yup, ASUU has a huge problem, not just an image problem. And anyone that does not see it is in severe denial. Again, and again and again I will say it, ASUU's mode of communication is outmoded and inarticulate. You don't believe me? Here is an editorial by YNaija an online journal based in Nigeria:
Folks, please take the time to go through it, see the charts, how attractive and succinct they, see the section on ASUU, look at what they did with figures showing what NASS has gobbled up, AND what it would do for ASUU's demands. Now, that is mass communication, that is how to reach people. Compare that to the only thing remotely compelling about ASUU on her website, the Needs Assessment and you see why ASUU is seen as an ancient behemoth only invested in an outmoded system of entitlement and privilege. There is absolutely zero excuse for ASUU to be like this. There is so much good material on that "needs Assessment" that could be highlighted on charts, blogs, social media, etc. And it is FREE. All this racist liberal nonsense about how it is nice to be in America to view nice websites should fill us with shame and rage. Some of the best websites in the world are owned by Nigerians. There is something that happens to us when we get that contract to do something for an organization/state institution.
The people that are doing this to children, many of them got their degrees abroad, many lived here, they know their rights from their wrongs. They come home and suddenly, it is open season on children. It should not be possible for one union to shut down an entire nation's education just like that. It makes no sense and it is a national security issue for heavens' sakes. ASUU in its current configuration is sounding the death knell of public tertiary education and we know the victims of this horror. It is the children of the poor.
Bolaji, for the avoidance of doubt, my focus is squarely on ASUU, the government of the day is beneath contempt. I hold ASUU responsible for our situation. If ASUU would spend the time to think about a sound communications plan that consists of a one-text, charts brimming with data about what the issues are, what the needs are and what it would take in the short, intermediate and long run to fix the crisis (including a decentralization of unions to local universities, autonomy for local universities, etc), millions, including youths and parents would line up behind them for the mother of all protests.
I say to ASUU, you need data. Data is key. Anything without meaningful data is simply opinion, and mostly BS. Again, it is in ASUU's interest to have basic data that relates to its members. I have been on ASUU's case since 2009. Nothing has changed with them, they seem incurious. Many of them are here on Professor Toyin Falola's USA Africa Dialogue listserv where I have been on a running battle with them for years. Some of their executive members are on that listserv. I first complained about their website years ago. Nothing has changed. ASUU is just plain lazy.
In summary: We are at a pivotal moment, our educational system is in total disarray, and I agree with you Bolaji, it is a matter of national security, what is (not) happening to our children in those classrooms. Focusing on the tertiary institutions, we need a massive, massive, massive infusion of funds into public universities, colleges and polytechnics. First things first, in return for those funds, ASUU should preside over its dismantling. ASUU as a national organization needs to go. It is simply crazy that a cookie-cutter approach is being used for pretty much every public tertiary institution out there. Block grants should be given to each state to restore infrastructure, universities should have real autonomy, and union membership should only be for each institution. ASUU as a national body should not exist. It is cancer that must be excised. In the name of the children of the poor.- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
From: Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com>
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Ikhide <xok...@yahoo.com>
Cc: NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaP...@yahoogroups.com>; naijaintellects <naijain...@googlegroups.com>; OmoOdua <Omo...@yahoogroups.com>; ekiti ekitigroups <ekiti...@yahoogroups.com>; Ra'ayi <Raay...@yahoogroups.com>; "niger...@yahoogroups.com" <niger...@yahoogroups.com>; Yan Arewa <YanA...@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 5, 2013 6:55 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - ASUU Part Quatre: We Have An Agreement | Agùntáṣǫólò
Ikhide:First, as a Vice-Chancellor and concerned citizen, I continue to be saddened by the prolongation of this strike in the Nigerian University System (NUS) that has now entered its third month - which is a third in length already of the super-long 2002/2003 strike of yore. After the meeting of five representative VCs, ASUU representatives and the Vice-President Sambo on September 16 in which certain reasonable decisions were reached, one thought that cooler heads would prevail. But alas, significant distrust and some missteps between the contending parties leave the situation un-resolved, with no end in sight yet.Secondly, you have been a fly in ASUU's ointment, and have been joined by Feyi Fawehinmi (FF) in his four-part blog series, [http://aguntasolo.com/] which I have thoroughly read. I commend him - a university brat himself - for his yeoman effort. It is not easy to be a social/public critic - and using data too, because opinions are easy, facts sacred, and you must develop a thick skin when people come after you. When you also get the attention of a Prof. Akin Oyebode (who has been on both sides of the isle on this matter) with a rejoinder (I repeat the rejoinder in the Appendix below), then you know that FF has hit a raw nerve.However, Ikhide, for the sake of transparency, I made available inall the ASUU, SSANU, NASU and NAATS 209 agreements with the Federal Government. Notice that it was not ONLY ASUU, but the other three unions. So the total EARNED allowances being demanded is NOT for ASUU alone - and that point must NOT be forgotten, and ASUU should not be held as if it is demanding ALL of this money for itself. That is a point that FF must acknowledge moving forward, and not pour all invectives on ASUU. Non-academics too must also share the blame in the rot in our university system. In fact, if you read the EARNED Allowances portion of the other unions other than ASUU, some eye-popping and hair-raising agreements were made which, to my mind, should not have been made AT ALL, not to talk of setting NAIRA RATES to them.The third point to be made is that while principles of funding and financial rates were agreed with respect to certain allowances, the total number of staff to be paid (and students to be served) by each university; who between the federal government and the university that would make the payments; and most especially the CAP of the total amount paid were really NOT part of the agreement. This was the MAIN flaw of the agreement, and has really led to the impasse.In order to correct this flaw, back in September 2011, all the Vice-Chancellors of Federal Universities - we nine new ones included, barely six months old then on our jobs - were asked by the Federal Minister of Education to submit the financial implications of the 2009 agreement on our campuses for ALL employees (academic and non-academic) for the period July 2009 to December 2012. An initial compilation in November 2011 was incomplete (not enough universities responded) because of confusion about what was to be included or not, but by April 2012, a fuller compilation was made by the FGN/University-based Unions Agreements Implementation Monitoring Committee chaired by Dr. Wale Babalakin, and revealed to us: a sum of N106.7 billion, itemized according to the following table.
According to the IMC, a close study of the submissions showed too much inflation, and universities were once again asked to go back to tighten their figures, leading to a revised figure of about N92 billion (I don't have that table with me, but that amounts to about 90% of the above figures).Where we are now then is that the Federal Government has offered to pay - and has paid - N30 billion, asking the universities and their Councils to source for the rest, to ASUU (and Vice-Chancellors') chagrin.I suspect that Government suspects that there is still inflation in the figures, but has indicated that the universities should use what has been given NOW, and then return LATER to report what is left to be paid, and that will be considered. (This is an outcome of a meeting with the Vice-President, and what the VCs have recommended previously.) I believe that that is a fair demand - but ASUU is not trusting enough of government's intention, not without reason - but it must trust, for the sake of the nation.Ikhide, you asked whether I agreed with FF's analysis. I will now stick my neck out and indicate my own official position as Otuoke VC to the IMC when it asked for a revision. This is what I wrote in a paragraph as opinion - and I stick to it even today:There is a fourth point to be made. If you study the "agreements" closely, some of the agreements were "agreements to recommend", NOT agreements themselves. A recommendation can be agreed to or rejected, but to act as if the agreement to RECOMMEND amounts to the RECOMMENDATION itself causes a perception problem.For example, take this section of the ASUU agreement:Does this section REALLY mean that the Federal Government has AGREED to fund universities to the tune of N1.518 trillion? Not at all....it just means that the IMC has AGREED to make that recommendation to the FGN, which in fact it did. It is now UP to the FGN to accept or reject it. We might be very UNHAPPY that the recommendation was not accepted, but it would be disingenuous to state that the FGN has ACCEPTED to provide N1.518 trillion, but is now only offering N400 billion.Same principle goes to this section of the ASUU agreement:Ikhide, I have provided this long piece to give you my own knowledge of the history of this impasse, and to provide some insight into my own line of thinking. There is enough blame and misunderstanding on all sides, but what we need right now is statesmanship on both sides to end this strike, after which our whole Nigerian University System should be re-evaluated to grant GREATER AUTONOMY to individual universities; have the federal government (and the NUC) play a less intrusive role in university governance; declare the education sector a national security matter; and have collective bargaining / strike action be more local rather than national. Towards that end:1. The Federal Government should truly commit to increasing funding to the education sector, starting with the 2014 Budget. It should include ALL monies going NOT only to the Federal Ministry of Education but to ETF, PTDF and any other MDAs that spend money on education in the calculations.2. ASUU should accept the N30 billion earned allowance paid now as DOWN-PAYMENT, and when the Vice-Chancellors in consultation with the Governing Councils have disbursed same, should be able to return for more as found necessary. IN the time being, the Federal Government should budget N30 billion for it in the 2014 budget, to build trust.3. ASUU should accept the N100 billion NEEDS assessment money given to all universities by the Federal Government, after being assured that this will not affect statutory TETFUND money. [By the way, all VCs and Pro-Chancellors are being invited to Abuja next on Tetfund affairs.] Again, the Federal Government should budget N100 billion in the 2014 budget for special ADDITIONAL intervention in the next year, and the following two years, and ensure that all trapped TetFUND monies are released promptly..4. The Federal Government's No-Work No-Pay rule on this particular strike should be rescinded forthwith; It sours relations, in the opinion of Vice-Chancellors, because there are academic staff who may NOT be teaching, but are doing research and community service, and some are actually doing administrative work (Heads of Departments, Directors, etc.).And there you have it.Bolaji AlukoAPPENDIXQUOTE Rejoinder from Prof. Akin Oyebode to FF's "We have an ASUU Problem"Dear FF,I couldn't resist responding to your jibes and vituperation. It is full of generalizations, errors, inexactitude and inanities that could make one want to throw upPlease be informed that the time UNILAG had three Harvard alumni on its Law Faculty was over two decades ago. I should know since I went to the big H and have been on the UNILAG staff list for nearly 40 years and the only member of the troika still on ground.I agree that some of us love teaching and, or are deeply patriotic but there's a lot more to taking the jump to a greener pasture abroad. Please be informed that most of us still around remain not out of lack of rosy offers and promises of a better life but because of our firm belief in the necessity to ensure that the roof did not cave in on Nigeria's education system.I'm surprised you failed to recite the line of cynics that those who can, can and those who can't, teach. Having been in the business of teaching lawyers for quite a while, helping, in the process, to produce 50 SANs and 25 law professors, I should be in a position to make averments regarding legal education in Nigeria and matters incidental thereto.When one of my children came back to the country after concluding his LLM in a US Ivy League Law School and succeeded in addition to crack the New York Bar (at first attempt, by the way), he was full of praises for the quality of legal education he had obtained here in UNI:LAG. I'm sure you must have come across numerous Nigerians in your country of sojourn making good with Nigeria's university education which you have derided so much.You argue that the quality oft our pedagogy was suspect but the evidence on the ground does not justify your wholesale condemnation. Of course, we can use greater input and modernization of the education process but we are still striving to perform or task in the face of paucity of facilities and inability to attract and retain the best and brightest. I can tell you that Harvard had nearly 100 libraries when we were there some 40 years ago. The main library had nearly five million volumes…I do not, in the least wish to turn this conversation into a point-counter-point discussion but let me tell you this: the ball lies squarely in the court of the Nigerian State for disparaging the old legal maxim, pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be implemented in good faith). The disdain for Nigerian academics shared by people of your ilk within a general anti-intellectual environment is so suffocating that one has to wonder why our universities and other higher institutions of learning had actually survived thus far.Way back in the 1990′s, I happened to have acted in the role of legal adviser to the ASUU negotiation team that brought into being the first FG-ASUU Agreement which the government of the day later felt it worthy to thump its nose at. A decade later, I had become a V-C and was a member of the government team that midwifed a revised version of the 1992 FG-ASUU Agreement. Characteristically, the government of the day again went back on its words. Now, we are once again faced with the scenario of discounting an agreement signed, sealed and delivered by the selfsame parties in 2009. It would have been funny if it was not tragic.I pause to ask, when would the Nigerian State learn to put its money where its mouth is? The real issue is re-furbishing the infrastructure of our universities in the face of a student population bursting at its seams while the rich, famous and powerful dispatch their children and wards to the US, Europe and better organized environments such as South Africa, Ghana and even, Benin Republic next door. It would seem Alphonse Kerr knew what he was saying when he observed, " Plus ca change, plus la meme chose… ( The more things change, the more they remain the same…)Since ASUU is demanding a mere fraction of what the country expends on running its bureaucracy, importation of fuel by an oil-rich enclave, humongous emoluments for its legislators, sundry acts of corruption and squandermania, the path of reason is to make the necessary adjustment in the country's scale of values and priorities in order to rescue Nigerian universities from ultimate perdition. Anyone who says that ASUU is asking too much or acting unreasonably needs to put on his thinking cap in order to understand clearly what the current struggle is all about.UNQUOTEOn Sat, Oct 5, 2013 at 6:39 AM, IKHIDE <xok...@yahoo.com> wrote:"As I've said several times before – this dispute is all about pay and nothing else. The thing with recommendations is that they are just that; recommendations. You cant take someone to court for not following a recommendation. So it was up to the government to follow those parts of the agreement or not. But ASUU weren't messing about with the parts that concerned them. The numbers were clearly specified which is why today they can say the government is owing them N92bn in earned allowances or whatever the figure is. It is also the same reason why the government feels it can throw N30bn at them and ask them to 'manage' it. Afterall its ASUU's word against the government's.You hardly come across the word 'student' in the agreement at all. And there is nothing specific about infrastructure in there other than the large sums of money the government was supposed to give the universities. There are many people today making ignorant noises about government 'honouring the agreement' and even coming up with things that are not in said agreement as 'ASUU's demands'. There really isnt anything for anyone in here other than ASUU so personally I'd say, leave them to fight it out with government."Fascinating, if hilarious analysis of the ASUU-FG agreement. I wonder if Bolaji Aluko agrees with the analysis. He does nail ASUU something awful on the self-serving nature of the agreement. More alarming, he makes the great point that no one truly knows how much every year this agreement will cost. No budgetary numbers, just pay. All the government needs to do is just pay ASUU. Why are we like this? A must read. Read the rest here:--To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
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